If you are interested in starting your own LLC, you may want to purchase our $34.95 kit that walks you through creating the entity, getting an EIN, and provides example documents and forms including single-member and multiple-member LLC operating agreements.
The actual steps you take to form a Mississippi LLC are fairly straightforward, and you can follow the instructions below if you don’t need the additional information the kit provides.
1. Check if the LLC name you want is available
Your first step in setting up an LLC is to check if the name you want to use is even available.
To do this, you can use the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Business Services search form at:
http://www.sos.state.ms.us/busserv/corp/soskb/csearch.asp
By entering the name you want to use in the search form, you’ll be able to see if there’s another business already using the name that you want. You can’t use a name, by the way, that’s the same or deceptively similar to another existing LLC’s name.
2. Download the LLC application form from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s web site, then print this form
The URL, or web page address, for this form is as shown below.
http://www.sos.ms.gov/links/business/fees/llcs/F0100.pdf
3. Identify the name you want to use for your new LLC
After you download and print the LLC application form, you’re ready to fill the form out.
Enter your business or investment name into top box labeled, “Name of Limited-Liability Company.” The name must include one of the phrases or acronyms, “Limited Liability Company,” “Limited Liability Co.,” “LLC,” or “L.L.C.” For example, all of the following names should be acceptable:
- Acme Explosives Limited Liability Company
- Acme Explosives Limited Liability Co.
- Acme Explosives LLC
- Acme Explosives L.L.C.
4. List the future effective date if applicable
In the second box, list the future effective date, if it is different than the filing date. The date must be in the future, but cannot be more than 90 days from your filing date. Usually, you just want to form the LLC as soon as possible, so leave this line blank.
5. Provide a business email address contact
If you have a business email address, enter that bit of information into the space next to the future effective date box.
6. Enter your federal employer identification number if applicable
If you already have an EIN for your LLC—and you actually need a new EIN for a new LLC, you can’t recycle an old EIN—enter your LLC’s EIN. If you do not yet have an EIN—and you really shouldn’t if the business hasn’t been created with the state yet—instructions for obtaining one are in the downloadable kit.
7. Identify the registered agent and office
Mississippi wants to know the name and contact information for a real person within the state of Mississippi who can act as the contact person for the LLC should the state have questions. You can pay someone else to be this person, what’s called a “registered agent,” but it’s really easiest and cheapest to just be your own registered agent.
Accordingly, enter your name and address information into boxes labeled “Name and Street Address of Registered Agent and Registered Office.”
8. State the dissolution date, if any
If you only want the LLC to exist until a point in time, enter the date that the LLC should cease to exist in the “…specific date of dissolution” field. If you don’t know when the LLC should end its life, leave the field empty.
9. Indicate how your LLC will be managed
LLCs can be managed either by all of their members, or owners, or they can be managed by only one or some of their members, who are in this case called managers or manager-members. To indicate how your LLC will be managed, mark the appropriate checkbox in box labeled “Yes,” or “No” in regards to whether or not the LLC will be managed by a manager(s).
10. List any additional information
The last boxes on the bottom of page 1 of the form provide space to include any other matters you deem appropriate in regards to managers or members.
11. Identify the people forming the LLC
Mississippi also wants to know the names and contact information for the person or people organizing the LLC and you provide this information on page 2 of the standard preprinted form. To provide this information, a member (probably you) or an organizer must sign the “Signature” box and then list their name and title below. In the boxes after the name and title section, enter the address for that member or manager. Remember to keep the signature within the boxes provided as the document will be scanned by a computer. Any marks outside of these boxes may force the computer to reject the form.
12. Mail in the LLC application
After you complete the application to form a limited liability company, mail the completed form and a check for $50 to:
Office of the Mississippi Secretary of State
P.O. Box 136
Jackson, MS 39205-0136
Processing lead times vary, but in general, it takes several weeks to get your LLC certificate back from the Secretary of State’s office.